


The Way He Should Be

by liberallesbian37



Series: Project Team Beta's 2013 Writing Challenge [23]
Category: Pretty Little Liars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 09:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liberallesbian37/pseuds/liberallesbian37
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ezra gives his students a writing assignment about what superpower their fathers would have. After reading the essays, he gets to thinking about what kind of dad he would be.</p><p>*Pre "Uncle" Jamie<br/>*Before Ezra knows about Malcolm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way He Should Be

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge Number/Title: 23/Superdad  
> Date Posted: 6/27/13  
> Fandom: Pretty Little Liars  
> Rating: T  
> Genre: Canon  
> Content Descriptors: Mention of abuse  
> Character Pairing: None

                 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** invisibility. Because that’s what he is: invisible. And you, Mr. Fitz, are either crazy or stupid if you think I’m going to write an entire paper about why the asshole who left me and my mom is a superhero. He isn’t a superhero. No superhero would abandon his son, his family. No superhero would sit by and let his son be shuffled from foster home to foster home. No superhero would stand by while another man hit his son. No, my dad isn’t a superhero. But if he was, he’d have invisibility.

Caleb Rivers

 

 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** shape shifting. Because he already shape shifts. Not physically, but emotionally. You know this, Ezra. Sometimes he is the best dad in the world. He’ll made grilled cheese and we’ll hang out watching old movies and it will be like old times. And then, sometimes he’s the biggest asshole in the world. He treats me like a child. It isn’t fair that he lets Mike run wild and keeps such a tight rein on me. Sometimes I think it would be easier if he DID physically shape shift; then everyone could see his multiple personalities. But he’s just a human.

P.S. This is like a kindergarten assignment.

Aria Montgomery

 

 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** freeze vision. When Kate got me drunk and I got sick on Isabelle’s dress, my father looked at me with such disdain I felt physically cold. And when I told Isabelle that he cheated on her with my mom… I think he honestly wanted me dead. His eyes were so cold, so filled with hatred. And later, when Kate accused me of spreading pictures of her, he looked at me like that again. With cold, calculating revulsion. His heart is frozen, and if he was a superhero he’d be able to freeze everyone with one look.

Hanna Marin

 

 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** mind control. That’s basically what he already does. He tells people what to do, and they do it. So, in super human form, that would only be amplified. Let me give you an example, Mr. Fitz. Last week, he had a colleague over for dinner. This colleague had been hired by a man who was accused of killing five women. Maybe you heard about it; he’s been all over the news. It’s a really high profile case. A case of a lifetime. I don’t know what my father said, but by the end of the night he managed to talk his colleague into dropping the man’s case. The colleague would have made thousands and thousands of dollars on this case, but he just dropped it. The next day, my father snatched up the case. See, mind control. Also, he must have some form of mind control. It’s the only logical explanation for why Jessica DiLaurentis slept with him when she had a perfectly wonderful husband.

Spencer Hastings

 

 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** omniscience. That man knows everything. And I mean everything. He knows when I get an A- instead of an A. He knows when my swim time drops by a second. He knows when I’m talking to Emily instead of doing my homework. But you know what, Mr. Fitz? For everything he knows, he doesn’t know the important things. He doesn’t know my favorite color, or musician. He doesn’t know what I like to eat when I’m sick, or what movie always makes me laugh. He doesn’t know that all I want is for him to love me for who I am. So I guess he isn’t a superhero. Because he DOESN’T know everything.

Paige McCullers

 

 **If my dad was a superhero, his power would be** nothing. My dad doesn’t need a superpower. He’s already a superhero. I know that sounds super corny and I bet you think I’m trying to take the easy way out, but it’s true. My dad is already the best. Ever since I was a little girl, he’s been my hero. When my mom and I argue, he’s always been there. Maybe it’s because he’s physically gone so much, I’m just happy when he’s actually around. But I think we would be just as close if I saw him every day. He was there for me when I came out. He supported me when Maya died. My dad doesn’t need to be a superhero. He’s a real hero.

Emily Fields

 

            Ezra Fitz put down the stack of papers he had been reading for over an hour. He hadn’t realized how many deadbeat dads Rosewood had. So many of these kids either didn’t have dads, or didn’t have dads that were around and cared. It broke his heart. Was this assignment a total flop? Did it hurt his students more than it helped their writing and thinking? Was Aria right; was it an assignment best suited for kindergarteners? No. He stood by the assignment. And it was a great way to segue into _Hamlet_. Although it appeared that most of his students didn’t have the same relationship with their fathers that Hamlet did with his, it did get them thinking.

            And it got him thinking as well. For the first time in nearly eight years, Ezra Fitz allowed himself to think about what would have happened if Maggie had kept their child. Which essay would his own son or daughter be writing? Would he have been like Caleb’s father—absent? Perhaps Caleb’s father wasn’t just some asshole who left. Maybe Caleb’s mother didn’t want him to stay. Maybe he didn’t even know he had a son. Ezra didn’t think he would be like Hanna or Paige’s dads. He would always love his child—wouldn’t he? But God, what if he would have been like Byron? All Byron did that made him a villain in Aria’s eyes was try to keep her safe. Would he be overprotective? Would he coddle his child until the child couldn’t stand him? Or, maybe, hopefully, he would be like Emily’s dad.

            Loving. Protecting. Accepting. The way a dad should be. The way his dad never was. The way most of his students’ dads weren’t.

            Yes, he decided. That’s the kind of dad he would have been—and maybe someday would be.


End file.
